Bringing students to the field and showing them what the real life of a biologist is like is certainly one great way to give rise to vocations. Alternatively this can be the chance to spare them precious time and energy, should they come to realize that this is not the life they wanted for themselves. While bringing many students on site can be both logistically- and economically challenging, making short introductory videos can constitute a more convenient solution to show both practical contents and learning outcomes of teaching activities, whether they occur on a boat, in the mountains or on a glacier.
Anne E. Bjune, BIO250 teacher
Anne E. Bjune, associate professor at BIO, has been delivered the first video for her course BIO250 – Paleoecology taught during the fall semester. A three-day trip to Lygra (north of Bergen) offers BIO250 students the chance to learn about core sampling in various terrains, and to retrieve samples that they will further analyse once back at the lab. The 3-minute video, that you can watch further below, shows not only the location and students in action, but also their reactions when performing the tasks and facing the challenges of their work.
This is part of bioCEED’s effort to stimulate production and use of media-based teaching material. Such material may indeed come handy not only when introducing subjects and curricula, but also when demonstrating lab and field methods. These videos are even more relevant when produced “in house” as they illustrate how things are done by local researchers and teachers with actual research gears.
bioCEED’s project Teach2Learn “Active Learning Creating Video Tutorials” has also a growing library of videos made in connection with the following courses and which can be used by teachers as illustrating material: